Some thoughts on leading a Village Church meeting …
Before time …
- Pray - Pray that God would bring the people that he wants to to church, that at the meeting our friends may be pointed clearly to Christ. That they might meet the living Jesus and grow in their understanding of him and to be more like him.
- Consult our list of church values (http://www.villagechurch.com.au/2010/06/our-values/) – and ensure that what you are planning for church this weekend is consistent with our values list. A key is that in leading the meeting you should plan to be 10% more professional and organised than the size of the meeting dictates, ie demonstrate that we are capable of growing to the next size meeting, rather than indicating that we are not coping with the current level of organisation that someone might expect.
- Liase with the pastor about rundown of the meeting so that you know exactly what ingredients are on this week.
- Check the google documents re who is doing what and what music is planned.
- Ensure that everyone who is expected to play a part in the meeting knows that they are playing a part in the meeting and that there are no gaps.
- Plan what you are going to say. Draft either a full script or bullet points to speak to. Remember especially that you will set the tone of the meeting. An old rule of thumb is ‘If you act like you are expecting non Christian guests at your church meeting, then next week their will be.) See Tim Keller’s article here: http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/evangelisticworship.pdf Meeting length should be never more than 90 minutes. Ideally the normal meeting should go between 75 minutes. If it is going overtime, the Meeting Leader has the authority to drop certain non-key elements in order to shorten meeting.
Before the meeting
- Arrive at least half an hour before the scheduled start time.
- Double check that the propresenter rundown is consistent with your expectations and that the propresenter person knows what you have planned, any variations.
- Triple Check that every person who you have scheduled to play a presenting role in the meeting is present and aware of their role. It is your task as meeting leader to ensure that we don’t have any ‘crashes’ in the meeting.
- Gather to pray with a few of the musos, sound and video crew, set up crew, speaker to pray for the meeting and for the ministry of the gospel and the people who will come.
- Silence is a killer just before the meeting. If the sound guy forgets to put background music on after the band finishes rehearsing (15 mins before the meeting starts) can you please give them a nudge.
- Ensure that the meeting starts on time. We want to start singing at the meetings scheduled start time. We want to avoid getting into a pattern of starting late. We’ve generally been allowing the musos to start the service,with one of the song leaders greeting people at the start of the first song.
Welcome
The first thing you are doing when you start the meeting is to welcome people to Village Church. There are a variety of ways you can introduce the meeting and welcome people, but some of the things to include are:-
- Introduce yourself – “Hi my name is Nick Watson and I…”
- If there are a number of visitors, then you may like to mention where the facilities are, the fact that we have a crèche and kids program
- Mention the Connect Cards and their purpose – “As you came in tonight you would have been given a Connect Card (hold up and show people) in your handouts. Can I encourage everyone to fill in their details, make a comment, let us know if there is something we can help you with. You might like to join a Community Group, you might like to know more information about our Church; whatever it is, fill in your details on the
- Connect Card and they will be collected towards the end of our meeting.”
- There are generally two choices of things to discuss at the start of a meeting – you can either (1) talk about what is going to happen in the meeting coming up (eg ‘We are in for a treat tonight as we open up a part of the Bible written by the Apostle Peter, where he addresses what it is for a Christian to be involved in the world, but not compromised by the world – and that’s really applicable to us because … ‘) or speak about something that is significant as part of our church life (eg Welcome to church today on what is a big weekend for our church family – it’s only three days till our Christians in the Media conference Access All Areas and people here are very excited about that… ).
- Pray – you then might like to lead people in a short prayer that focuses the meeting and points to what we will be doing.
Family News
- Plan for one feature item of family news – perhaps an interview or video.
- Plan for perhaps two other items that can be announced as a ‘straight read’ by you.
- Any more and the meeting feels cluttered.
- When you have a guest on the platform that you are interviewing, invite them to stand in the center behind the lecturn (with you off to the side holding a hand held mic). Plan your questions beforehand and keep it tight.
During the meeting
- Point people to Jesus. Remember the role of Meeting Leader is like a signpost. It is your job to point people to Jesus, not to make it all about you.
- Sometimes introduce songs in the meeting. You may have noticed other meeting leaders occasionally making comment about a song that has just been sung, reflecting on some words or making reference to a Bible passage that the song words remind them of.
- Remember to encourage the kids to leave for kids church either before the Bible Reading or before the address.
Prayer
Prayer throughout the meeting. When we meet each week together as Christians, we are trying to model in our large meetings the content of what the ordinary Christian Life. Therefore, prayer, hearing and responding to God’s word, and fellowship all make a part of what we do. Not only is it good to have a section of prayer in the meeting, but also to pray…
- Before we read God’s word, that he would help us understand and apply it
- Spontaneously after a song in a way that draws peoples attention to either something the song was reflecting upon or to what we are about to do next
- For somebody after they have been interviewed
- After the sermon, though this is often covered off by corporate prayer
- At the conclusion of the meeting.
Towards the end
- Remind people that their connect cards will be collected during the last song.
Wrap
- Remind people who give by cash on the day to financially contribute to the work of Christ here through the perspex box at the back of the room.
- Draw ideas together – As you end the meeting you essentially draw together any loose threads, summarising key points. I tend to choose the “big idea” of sermon and meeting and say a few things that reinforce and remind people of this big idea. )(Be careful though not to preach another sermon) I might also use a Bible passage/verse that nails the same point home – this can be part of the passage that was taught on or another one all together.
- Pointer to our next meeting together as a church family, perhaps raising a teaser question that will be resolved at that meeting.
- Invite people to stay around for supper.
(Some of this paper has been drawn from an earlier document prepared by Matt Lemsing in 2009).
